North Sulawesi imports rice from Thailand
A businessman from North Sulawesi is importing 10,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand to meet local demand, according to an Antara news report.
The first shipment of rice amounting to 4,200 tonnes arrived at Bitung seaport on April 8, a local official said on Wednesday.In the second or third week of April, the remaining 5,800 tonnes are expected to arrive in the province. "The rice import is under the Bulog (state-owned logistics agency) flag, but is actually fully owned by a private businessman," said Slanet Ariyanto, head of North Sulawesi's provincial Bulog Office. Based on a trade minister's decree, rice imports have also been conducted in several of the country's cities - including Jakarta, Batam and Makassar (South Sulawesi) - to meet domestic consumption. To deal with a rice shortage, the Indonesian government has set a target of producing 58.1 million tonnes of unhusked rice this year, and set itself to import another one million tonnes annually to assure the availability of stocks. "We have revised and extended our memorandum of understanding for rice imports from Vietnam until 2009, and we have also agreed to increase the volume of our imports to one million tonnes per year," Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said recently.
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